Back in September
of 2006 a very handsome chap* called Lucas got bored of playing
football. It wasn't because he was rubbish, in fact he was destined for
greatness, he just didn't like the mentality of his fellow sportsmen. He had gone to two Ultimate
Frisbee practice sessions whilst at Cardiff University,
but for some reason stopped. So in the autumn of 2006, rather than
kicking a ball around, he dragged a few of his work colleagues to
Victoria Park in Leamington Spa, and they threw a Frisbee between
themselves. Jumpers and car-keys were used to mark out endzones.
A yahoo mailer
group was established, and the 'club' (if you could call it that!) was
registered on the UKUA website. Lucas was faced with an online
registration form with the field "team name" to be completed. He only
knew of one other Frisbee team, the Warwick Bears, so he hastily
plumped for the name the Leamington Lemmings (somewhat more modest than
the Bears he thought). One by one, people started to discover the
Leamington Lemmings, including the local cricket team of the same name
(Lucas was unaware of them, until he received a hostile email from a
club member!). It was Yan Pugh-Jones who was the first non-work
colleague at practice, and the only one who actually knew the rules!
Attendance at
'training' sessions, which involved doing our best to chuck a disc
between ourselves, starting to pick up, but was promptly halted by the
on-set of winter - playing Frisbee in the dark is pretty damn hard. The
Lemmings went into hibernation, and then early summer of 2007, Lucas
yet again set about getting more Lemmings throwing pieces of plastic to
each other. More and more people started attending, and the Lemmings
got their very first website!
Lucas spent his
lunchtimes designing a super sexy kit for the Lemmings, and Mrs. Disco and Mr Duncan (a friendly concept artist at Blitz Games) helped out with a cartoon sketch of a Lemming to add to the logo. Their
first ever tournament was that summer in Glastonbury, Somerset - and suddenly everyone was hooked on Ultimate!
Since then the
club has gone from strength to strength. In February of 2008 the
Leamington Lemmings Ladies entered their first tournament, and the club
hosted their first ever tournament, the Lemmings Luau. They will be
entering both Open and Mixed Tours in the 2008 season, and aim to have
both Junior and Women's teams for the following season.
*shurely shome mishtake? ed.